Question

during the landing of the mars science laboratory curiosity, it was reported that the signal from the rover would take 14 minutes to reach earth. Radio signals travel at the speed of light, about 186,000 miles per second. How far was Mars from earth when Curiosity landed?

Answer 1

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.
14 minutes * 60 = 840 seconds.
So we multiply 186,000 * 840 and we get 156,240,000 miles.

Answer 2

Answer: 156,240,000 miles.

Explanation:

Given: The speed of light =186,000 miles per second.

Time taken by signal to reach earth = 14 minutes.

In seconds, Time taken by signal to reach earth =
`14*60=840` seconds.

Let d be the distance from Mars to Earth.

We know that
`\text{Distance=Speed*time}`

`d=186,000*840=156,240,000\text{ miles}`

Hence, the distance from Mars to Earth is 156,240,000 miles.